1. How much is the state spending on road repairs and how much is for the Nashville area?
A: There are about 14,000 miles of state-maintained roadways in Tennessee, and you see roadwork every day.
Just this week, DOT is working on 10 road projects in Davidson County — among them is milling and paving I-24 in both directions in Davidson County, same on I-65, filling in potholes on both. They’re doing a big project on I-40 — retaining walls, drainage, paving, bridgework
So what does that all cost?
So far this year, Tennessee DOT is spending almost $450 million on road resurfacing. That’s potholes, but other larger road repairs.
DOT spent about $1 billion each of the last two years on resurfacing projects, and about $650 million in 2021.
This year, Davidson County is getting the largest share, at $23 million.
Davidson got over $19 million each of the last two years for road repairs, and $15 million in 2021.
2. How does Davidson County’s funding compare to the rest of the state?
Shelby County, home to Memphis, usually gets more funding than Davidson, but so far this year it’s a lot less than Davidson’s $23 million, its $10 million.
So with that, the road funding for the two largest counties actually is almost the same over four years, 2021-2024, $75-$76 million for each county.
The smaller, rural counties get a million, a few million a year, while there are about 20 counties that get between $5 million and $10 million every year.